A ring of 10 Russian “moles” operated a spy ring in the US for years, using New York as a favored location for passing cash and electronic gear in Cold War scenarios right out of a James Bond movie, federal investigators said today.

The suspects, most of them married couples with children, were told by Moscow to become “Americanized,” infiltrate “policymaking circles” and pass secrets to Moscow.

— A senior Russian spy, who used the name “Christopher Metsos,” served as go-between and moneyman for agents across the country. In one case he buried cash in upstate Wurtsboro that was dug up two years later by a Yonkers couple who joined the ring.

— Metzos turned over an orange bag of cash to a Russian government official in May 2004 when they passed one another on a stairway at the Forest Hills LIRR stop. Other hand-overs and meetings between spies occurred in coffee shops in midtown and Fort Greene, Brooklyn, a Sunnyside, Queens restaurant and a subway entrance at Columbus Circle.

— One of two married spies from Montclair, N.J., who used the name “Cynthia Murphy,” told Moscow in February 2009 that she had “several work-related personal meetings” with a prominent New York financier, who was a big campaign fundraiser. “Of course, he is a very interesting target,” Moscow replied.

— Spies based on Boston gave their handlers in May 2006 information about changes at the head of the CIA that they said came from a well-connected “former legislative counsel for the US Congress,” they told Moscow.

— The Boston spies also boated in 2004 that one of their agents had talks with a US nuclear expert about research on bunker-buster warheads.

— Murphy’s husband, who used the name “Richard Murphy,” was told last January how the would be able to identify another spy when he traveled to Rome to get a bogus Irish passport.

“Excuse me, could we have met in Malta in 1999?” he told to ask. If the contact was legitimate, he would reply, “Yes, indeed I was in La Valetta, but in 2000.” But if his contact was carrying a copy of Time magazine in his left hand, it was a signal that the meeting was in danger, according to the instructions from Moscow.

The indictment revealed that the feds have been watching the ring for years and had surreptitiously gotten into three of their lairs — a Hoboken townhouse in 2005 and a Seattle apartment and a Boston townhouse in 2006 — apparently without being detected.

The court documents also revealed day-to-day problems of the spy business.

Last March 7 two of the spies were watched as they met at a pay phone at DeKalb and Vanderbilt Avenues in Brooklyn. They went from there to a coffeehouse for a long chat. One agent complained about the computer Moscow gave him. “They don’t understand what we go through over here,” he kvetched.

Moscow closely monitored how much it was spending. In one message it listed all the expenses for two Boston spies, including $8,500 for rent, $160 for telephone, $180 for a car lease.

Two Yonkers spies struggled financially and after one of them flew to an unidentified South American country to pick up eight bags, each filled with $10,000, he used it to pay off nearly $8,000 in back taxes to the country and city.

The two Montclair spies were described by neighbors as very normal. “They were suburbia personified,” one said.

Four people named as Richard and Cynthia Murphy, Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro did not challenge bail and will appear in court again Thursday, Fox News Channel reported.

The fifth defendant, named as Anna Chapman, applied for bail and attempted to have all charges dismissed, but lost on both counts and will appear in court again July 27.